Aerial Conservation Monitoring has raised $135K in seed funding to scale its drone-based wildlife census technology, which aims to replace fuel-heavy helicopter surveys across African conservancies. The round’s investors were not disclosed.
The company’s system pairs long-range fixed-wing drones with onboard AI to identify species and produce georeferenced maps that feed directly into platforms like EarthRanger. ACM says its approach can cut CO₂ emissions per census by up to 90–97% while delivering full coverage in one to five days. After completing a proof of concept at Borana Conservancy in Kenya in 2025, the startup is now working toward repeatable deployments and multi-site expansion.
